This walk was an excuse for an offtrack wander from Charlotte Pass around Mt Northcote. The pretense was to view elements of European history in the area.
After crossing the Snowy River at the stepping stones we headed to Foremans Chimney, the remains of a cattlemans hut. Just downstream from here we found old cable from the Jimmy Walker bridge, a footbridge across the snowy built in the 1950’s for spring access by skiers to the the Northcote ski tow. (Edit: On our next club walk we deviated to see this bridge location from the other side of the river. There was more cable and bridge decking to be seen in the river and around an anchor rock)
We then headed up Club Lake Ck to look for evidence of a SMA stream gauging station. Unfortunately it was not to be found, although it was found on the aforementioned next club walk. Continuing up the creek there were some tricky creek crossings (to keep the feet dry), with moderate scrub that was easy enough with some ducking and weaving. This brought us to the ruins of Kunama Huette, a ski lodge in the 1950’s that was destroyed by an avalanche in 1956, killing 1 person, Rosalyn Wesche. With the associated Northcote ski tow this area was very popular in the 1950’s, including speed skiing record attempts down the Eagle Run, and slalom competitions in the summer, around Christmas time!
After lunch we inspected the ruins of the ski tow house, and then a steep 300m walk up the old ski tow line passing debris of the tow towers still lying around. There were still snow drifts up high which forced us to exit all the way to the top of Mt Northcote.
Time was short so we didn’t go down to the ruins of Albina Hut, just observed them from above. In Moraine pass evidence of the old road from Seamans Hut to Albina could be seen, but it is a mystery as to where the Moraine Pass Stone Shelter was.
From here we went down to Rawsons Ck to the site of Rawsons Hut, an SMA hydrologists hut. Then back to the Kosciuszko Rd, past Seamans Hut, and back to Charlotte Pass. Unfortunately we didn’t have time to deviate to the Morans Moraine Stone Shelter.
It should be noted that the flower season was not particularly brilliant at this time, perhaps due to late snow – the area was covered with 150mm of snow a week and a half before the walk. Nevertheless, a brilliant walk was had through familar country, but from a different to usual angle.